Degrees of Separation
by Madam Author
Summary: Did Don ever find out any information on his grandmother's cousin's family that he said he would search for in Provenance? Don locates a previously unknown cousin. Crossover with Stargate SG-1. Title may change in the future.
1. Chapter 1

This takes place in season 3 for Numb3rs--just after "One Hour" and after "Unending" but before "Ark of Truth" for Stargate. I'm not familiar with Stargate: Atlantis (I've only watched one episode) so if I contradict anything in that please forgive me. If I make a mistake with regards to SG-1 please be polite in correcting me.

* * *

"_Hey, you know you told me about your Mom's cousin not finding anyone?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_You think you could give me a list of names?"_

"_You're going to find them?"_

"_Yeah, you know, I'd like to try. What do you think?"_

"_Go ahead."_

--Don and Alan in _Provenance_

* * *

**An Unexpected E-mail**

Don sighed and plopped down on the bed in his apartment. It had been a long day for him. Though, he thought wryly, not as long as it had been for his team. He could not _believe_ what had happened while he'd been at Dr. Bradford's office. He thought back to what the shrink had said—that his team's success was all on him. He smiled. That was one he could get behind.

Still it had been a crazy morning for the team, especially Colby, and Don had sent them all home a little early that afternoon.

Charlie had invited him for dinner, but Don had decided that he needed some time to digest everything from that day and he'd declined.

What he really wanted to do was get to sleep early tonight.

Stepping into the bathroom he paused a moment and turned around to power on his computer. He wasn't really sure why he kept it as he used it even more rarely than the apartment itself. But he hadn't checked his personal email account in a few days so he decided to do that before getting ready for bed.

Sitting down at his desk he glared at the slow start-up. There was a reason he usually did this on Charlie's laptop. Finally though, he was able to open his internet browser, using one of the unprotected wireless networks in the area to connect.

There was some spam and an email notification of his online bank statement, but the one that caught his attention was from an unfamiliar email address with the subject listed as _Klein family information._

Don blinked, he'd almost forgotten about his query on some websites a few months ago looking for any information about Anna Klein's family. His paternal grandmother's cousin had left the Netherlands in 1938 to study in England. She'd lost all contact with her family when the war broke out and had never been able to locate any survivors after the war. Anna had moved to the US in 1954 and died in 1983 without ever finding anyone in her family. Don only vaguely remembered the woman—he'd been 13 when she died and had never really been interested in all the old people he'd met every few years at family reunions.

But that had been almost twenty-five years ago and there was a lot more information available now than there had been then. There were a number of Holocaust survivor and descendents sites online and he'd managed to find that Anna's parents and older brother, Isaac, had died in Nazi camps during the war. Heleen Klein, another sibling, he couldn't find _anything_ about. And the only information he had on the oldest Klein child, Liesbeth, was a marriage record from 1936 to a Nikolaas Ballard, but nothing after that.

Curious he clicked open the email and started to read.

_Mr. Eppes,_

_I found your query about the Klein family, specifically Anna Klein's siblings on the Holocaust Global Registry. I'm not sure if my information is about the same Klein family but the information is too close to discount out of hand. In your post you mentioned a marriage record of a Liesbeth Klein of Apeldoorn, Netherlands to Nikolaas Ballard of Zwolle in 1936._

_I think these two may have been my grandparents. My grandfather was born in __Nieuwleusen, a municipality close to Zwolle, in 1916. I know he got married in 1936 and he and his wife immigrated to America in 1939, just after the war in Europe began but before the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. But the names on all the records pertaining to them, including my mother's birth certificate, are Nicholas and Elizabeth Ballard—reasonable Americanizations of their original Dutch names. _

_Elizabeth Ballard died shortly after giving birth to my mother, Claire Ballard, in 1941._

_My grandfather brought up my mother in various remote locations around the world—he was an archaeologist and traveled a great deal. I do have a vague recollection of my mother telling me about the year they spent in the Netherlands with the Ballard family. This would have been in the late 50's. To be honest, the only reason I remember that conversation at all is because it is the first time I learned I had any Jewish ancestry. Unfortunately, I have no idea if she tried to or made contact with the Klein family while she was there. Both of my parents died when I was eight years old and my grandfather, already having raised one child while in academic pursuits, did not wish to repeat the experiment and turned me over to the New York foster care system. Needless to say, I was not on the best of terms with Nick (though I did visit him when I could once I came of age) until just before he died seven years ago._

_I have some journals and papers somewhere in all my belongings that were my mother's and grandfather's and I will try to locate them to see if I can find any more information on my maternal grandmother._

_I hope this helps you. Please feel free to contact me if you find any more information or have any questions._

_Regards,_

_Daniel Jackson_

Don sat back and let out a low whistle. He hadn't expected to really find all that much—after his initial start he'd discovered how hard it really was to find the information. He'd just felt that it was something that had needed to be done and had posted in a few places. But this was the first response he'd had at all. The information itself was not too surprising—Anna's sister was long dead, but if this information was about the right family then he had just found a cousin. He pulled out a sheet of paper to figure out the relationship between himself and Daniel Jackson. It took a few minutes and one visit to Wikipedia's explanation of the degrees of cousins to figure out that the common ancestor was Don's great-great-grandparents making Daniel Jackson third cousin to him and Charlie, and second cousin once removed to Alan.

Printing out the email and grabbing his jacket he decided to go over to Charlie's after all.

* * *

Note: Nick--Daniel's grandfather--may or may not be dead actually, as last we saw him he had decided to stay with the giant aliens on P7X-377 (_Crystal Skull_). However, even if Daniel knows he's alive there really is no way to explain to his new-found cousin that the man who would really know the answer is living on a planet light years away studying the culture of giant ghostly aliens who speak Mayan. So Daniel tells Don that Nick is dead.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Donnie! I thought you said you weren't going to come over tonight!" Alan exclaimed as he opened the door for his son. He'd heard the black SUV pull into the driveway and had decided to greet his oldest at the door. "There's still a bit of food, if you'd like some."

"I hadn't intended to come," Don spoke as he shrugged off his jacket and moved to the living room. "Where's Charlie?"

"Garage. So, what made you decide to come?"

"I checked my email and found this." He took the folded print out from his pocket and handed it to his father. "I think I might have found some information on your Mother's cousins."

Alan's eyebrows shot up and he took the paper, unfolding it as he spoke, "You managed to find something that quickly?"

Don shrugged, "I'm not sure. The information seems to match pretty closely though."

Alan wasn't really listening—he was reading the email. His expression turned thoughtful as he sat down and read through the words a second time. Don shifted on his feet, waiting for a response. He wasn't sure why he had felt so compelled to look for this information in the first place, and now that he had it—what was he supposed to do with it?

He heard footsteps and turned to see Charlie carrying a piece of paper, running a hand through his hair and muttering to himself as he entered the kitchen.

Don smirked, "Chuck!"

Charlie started and looked up in surprise at him. "Don! What are you doing here?" He stepped back out of the kitchen and entered the living room.

Don waved a hand at Alan, who had now set the page on the armrest and was staring at the black television.

"I got a reply about Grandma's cousin's family, so I brought it over."

Charlie raised an eyebrow and blithely crossed the room to pluck the paper off the chair and read through it.

"Huh," was Charlie's only response. It was interesting to find a family member that they previously were unaware of, but Alan had a distant look in his eyes that made him hesitant to make such flippant remark to that effect. Charlie didn't even remember his grandmother that well, much less her cousin, so all of this, while intriguing, held little emotional connection for him. But he could tell it had an effect on his father.

From Don's expression he seemed to be in the same mindset as Charlie. "Dad?" Don finally spoke.

Alan sighed, and turned to his two sons, "Well, it's good to finally know."

"Well, we still don't know everything. I haven't been able to find any information about Heleen Klein." Don pointed out. He'd told his father months ago about Anna's parents and her brother Isaac.

Alan nodded. "I ought to email this Daniel, and thank him for taking the time to let us know."

Don and Charlie, looked at each other awkwardly, not sure what exactly was going on in their father's head. Alan stood and smiled, though it was obvious slightly force, saying, "Well, boys, I'm off to bed. Don, thank you for bringing this over."

With that he retreated up the steps to his room, leaving his two sons confused.

~~00~~

Alan knew Charlie and Don were worried about his reaction to the email, but he couldn't help that right now. He wasn't even sure of his own feelings quite yet.

He'd figured that Anna's family had been long dead, but finding out for sure was hard. He remembered Anna quite well—she had immigrated to the US when he had been in his teens. When she had failed to locate any of her siblings she had instead focused her attention on her cousins' families. She'd been like a favorite aunt to him.

It had been her story, the way war had destroyed her family, that had prompted him to be as active as he had been in the early 70s Vietnam-protests. He would have disapproved of course, but without such a concrete example of how war ripped apart families he probably wouldn't have joined Californians for Peace.

It was too bad Anna had never known about Daniel. She had loved children and would have welcomed her sister's grandson into her life with open arms.

Alan sighed, placing the print out on his nightstand, and started preparing for bed.

~~00~~

Don had stayed the night, given how late it had been and how tired he was, and breakfast the next morning was a little quieter. Neither Charlie nor Don brought up the email. As he gathered their dishes Alan finally spoke, "I emailed Mr. Jackson this morning thanking him for the information and giving him a little background on Anna herself. I asked that if he did find out anymore information that he email me."

Don nodded and Charlie mused, "I wonder where he lives."

Alan smiled, "You've never been very interested in relatives before."

Charlie shrugged, "We never really had anyone our age in the family, most were contemporaries of Aunt Irene." All of them grimaced. "Daniel Jackson is the same generation as us—I'm guessing his age at five to ten years older than me."

Alan sighed, "I do wish we would have found this information earlier. There aren't a whole lot of people left on that side of the family. I know Anna would have been thrilled to meet Daniel." He switched topics abruptly, "But you two need to be getting off to work."

With that the subject was closed.


End file.
